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John Buccigross's Western Conference preview is up at ESPN.com. He seems a little bored this year, but he has the Oilers slotted #7 and the Flames 8th, which, considering he almost always seems to bid too low on the good guys, is good news.

Van Sun hed:

I haven't had much use for him myself since he went electric, but I bet dollars to donuts there's a cover of "Tomorrow Never Knows" in the set list...

But my Friday National Post column is probably still one of the ones I'll have included with my doomed NNA entry next spring. Its subject: having an existential meltdown over yogurt.

You wouldn't expect SNL (or any other show) to be able to come up with fresh O.J. material in 2008, but this compact piece may be the best of the new season so far. I don't know if this is the best-ever SNL cast but it might be the one with the least deadweight.

A case study in the economic impact of culture: meet Tama, the billion-yen stationmaster cat.

A surprise Thursday morning column from me in the Post: how Team Harper unnecessarily stickhandled the arts puck into their own net. Given the latest polls, this could be the first draft of history on the turning point in the election—some will say it was the economy, but I find it hard to believe Canadians are expressing some kind of experimental appetite for seeing how Bob Rae handles another recession. (Then again, the Americans seem to be reacting by rallying behind the honourable candidate for ACORN-Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac, soooo....)

I want to put on record that the key to the Northwest Division this season is Elisha Cuthbert.

Somewhat annoyingly, the Oilers have become the trendy pick for the NW title. I can understand why, because the upward-pointing indicators are obvious (they're bound to be healthier, they added Cole and Visnovsky, Sam Gagner and Andrew Cogliano improved rapidly, Tom Gilbert broke a rookie D franchise scoring record held by some punk named Coffey) and the question marks are subtler (Is a healthy Souray actually a plus? Is Garon this good? Are they really going to collect all those shootout points all over again? Which of the big rookies gets hit with the sophomore slump?). But despite my awareness of the cracks in the foundation, I can't point to any other team and say "These guys are clearly ahead of us"—certainly not with Tanguay and Rolston walking out of the division. What's interesting about the NW is that you can not only credibly envision anyone winning it, you can see absolutely anyone finishing last. A pre-season ranking forecast just seems like a sucker's bet. Elisha, you're our ace in the hole; don't let us down.

For once, a timely Colby Cosh article about the hot news of the hour: on Full Comment, I explain why Stéphane Dion and Steve Murphy had so much trouble making themselves understood to each other, and help you decide what to make of it. (See below for context!)

I'm liveblogging the election with the rest of the National Post editorial board over at Full Comment, if you're interested in joining us.

Random find of the day: an Environment Canada chart showing the probability of a white Christmas in various Canadian cities.

From the remarkable Hollywood Animation Archive comes a classic Life magazine article on Walt Disney's war work—which included a contract job for Canada's John Grierson and the NFB. Apparently Walt was hired to make a promotional/instructional cartoon about the Boys rifle, an anti-tank weapon that enjoyed a poor reputation among the troops for the highly inconvenient reason that it wasn't much good against German armour.

Courtesy of EaSoWeNo, a Chinese parable of the financial crisis.

Bane of your existence, Vancouver illustrator Rod Filbrandt? Join the club, pal.

Last week's column for the Post featured a Paul Harvey-esque disclosure about a white supremacist in Barack Obama's family tree. Although there has been some general discussion concerning Obama's genealogy, of the sort that typically accompanies U.S. presidential elections, I think I am the first journalist anywhere to dig up and publish this particular datum. It's of no more than idle interest, but idle interest is the columnist's business; you'd think someone would have had a rummage...

I also wrote a half-column about Isiah Thomas's pill overdose on Full Comment yesterday.